Brando almost did not play 'The Godfather'

Reuters News Service

Published 6:30 am, Wednesday, February 2, 2005

LOS ANGELES - Marlon Brando repeatedly rejected playing the role of Don Corleone in "The Godfather," telling an assistant: "It's about the Mafia. I won't glorify the Mafia," according to an article in the new issue of Vanity Fair released Tuesday.

In the magazine's annual Hollywood issue, novelist and Brando's longtime friend Budd Schulberg said the actor's assistant, Alice Marchak, begged him to read the book.

Schulberg, who wrote the screenplay for "On the Waterfront," one of Brando's most famous films, said at one point, the actor threw the book at her, saying, "For the last time," he said, "I won't glorify the Mafia!"

But Schulberg said that by some magic, the next time Marchak showed up, Brando had used an eyebrow pencil to draw a little mustache on himself and said, "How do I look?"

Marchak responded: "Like George Raft," an actor who often played gangsters on the big screen.

Each time she went to see Brando, Marchak told Schulberg, he was wearing a different Mafia-don mustache.

Despite his initial reservations about the film, Brando obviously had a change of heart. But Paramount studio executives objected to Brando playing the role and demanded he take a screen test. Brando obliged.

The role revived Brando's career and won him a second Academy Award, which he turned down.